Smith Galleries on Hilton Head, SC, is the area's leading gallery for contemporary American hand-made clothing. BaaBaaZuZu is a new arrival in the gallery.
Inspiration comes in many forms. For Sue Burns, baabaazuzu founder and lead designer, inspiration came one winter day in the back of her clothes dryer. Had her husband not shrunk some of Sue’s favorite wool sweaters, it could very well be that baabaazuzu would not exist. But the fact is, he did. And out of the tragedy of Sue Burns’ too-small-to-wear, once-adored sweaters arose a multi-million dollar company.
Baabaazuzu came to be in late 1993 after Sue Burns, a gifted graphic designer, cut up the shrunken remains of her favorite sweaters, pieced the fragments together and made jackets with matching hats for her two young daughters.
The process behind baabaazuzu’s creations is an age-old process. Felting. Simply put, it’s taking wool sweaters or garments – and in baabaazuzu’s case, it’s taking items that are no longer wanted and could not sell at second-hand stores and are literally a step away from being thrown into landfills – and washing them in very hot water so as to shrink into a very dense, very strong wool “fabric.” Sue then takes the felted material, cuts them up and, with her eye-of-an-artist, purposefully pieces them back together into wearable works of art – hats, mittens, jackets, scarves, etc.
BaaBaaZuZu is available at Smith Galleries on Hilton Head, SC. Call 800.272.3870 for additional information. The gallery is located in the Village at Wexford at mile marker 10.5 on William Hilton Parkway. Gallery hours are 10 - 6 Monday through Saturday.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
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